


Using His Inheritance

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24980026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: A rich man decides how to divide his money between his heirs
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Using His Inheritance

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'division'

Using His Inheritance

by Bluewolf

Thomas Sandburg was a rich man. Originally a grocer, he had dabbled in stocks and shares for some years, using only a fraction of his income from the shop doing so, until finally he had sold his shop and devoted his time to playing the stock market.

What he was paid for an efficiently run and successful shop gave him a very healthy sum of money, which he kept in a 'do not touch' account; his other account was his stock market one. And on a fairly regular basis, when he did well from his dealings on the stock market, he added money to the 'do not touch' account.

As a result, when he died he left just under six hundred million dollars to his son and a million dollars to his daughter.

John Sandburg considered his inheritance for a few hours after probate established the validity of his father's will, then, considering her to have been short changed by their father, transferred five million dollars to his sister. It made hardly a dent in his new fortune, and he knew that Ruth was a woman of simple tastes, and that never in her life would she spend one million dollars (let alone six million). He made no secret of his opinion that their father had treated her unfairly, and she thanked him for his action, although she, too, knew that it was more than unlikely that she would spend any of the million dollar windfall she had received from her father. But it would let her leave a good sum of money to her two daughters.

John then thought about the division of his fortune. How would he distribute the money when he died? It did no harm to make his will immediately - a driver ignoring a red light could easily kill him before the end of the week. That hadn't bothered him when all he had was a few thousand dollars in his savings account. But the millions he now had...

Like Ruth, John was a person of simple tastes. Not for him the cruise that would set him back $10,000 or more; two weeks sunbathing on a local beach, where all it cost him was the price of gas to get there each day, suited him perfectly. Not for him a bottle of champagne costing $500 or more; a simple wine costing $12 or less was extravagant enough for him, and much of the time he didn't even bother with that. He knew, therefore, that he was more likely to add to the money he had in the bank than use it in changing his way of life to the extravagant one that he had always avoided, and which he knew he would still consider a monumental waste of the money he now had in abundance.

He could, he knew, divide it equally among his children, leaving his daughters to think about their children's inheritance. But he had a special affection for one of his two grandchildren...

His oldest child, Naomi, enjoyed a life of travel, though she normally used the cheapest method available to get from A to B. The victim of a date rape when she was seventeen, she had ended up pregnant. She had stayed at home until Blair was two; then her innate restlessness led her to ask her parents to look after Blair for a while as she made her way around several Far Eastern countries. It had given John and his wife a tie to Blair that they didn't have with Robert, the son of their younger daughter Rachel. Shattered by the death of her husband when she was twenty-three, she had no wish to leave the small town where her husband was buried - for any reason. If her parents wanted to see her, they had to visit her.

Devoted though he was to his now-deceased wife and much though he missed her, John had never understood Rachel's wish - her need? - to visit her dead spouse's grave every day.

His son David had never married, never apparently wanted to marry. Wondering if David was gay, John had asked him, to be told no; David simply didn't want the commitment of a family. And while Naomi was fond enough of Blair, and had never considered an abortion, John suspected that she, too, would have been happier without the tie of a child. Rachel was the only one of the three who had welcomed a spouse and child.

And so, thinking about it, John decided on the division of his money.

Robert would inherit his mother's money, so he would get least - though still enough to make him wealthy by most people's standards. Blair's mother was unlikely to spent all her inheritance, but her travels would inevitably use at least some of it... and Blair was already at University, which would be expensive... and so he deducted the amount Robert would get and a million dollars for Blair's university expenses, then divided the remainder into four - and immediately gave that million to Blair, to cover those expenses.

And then, his will made, John relaxed, content that his family would be well provided for.


End file.
